Search form

Silver Jews Working Out Growing Pains On Tour

Once synonymous with never touring, the Silver Jews are hitting the road this fall for just their second U.S. tour in a 19-year career.

Once synonymous with never touring, the Silver Jews are hitting the road this fall for just their second U.S. tour in a 19-year career. The trek comes in support of the newly released Drag City album "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea."

Once considered a Pavement side project, the Silver Jews have long been spearheaded by songwriter David Berman, who's slowly learning to adjust to life on the road.

"I was trying to figure out how to make a living as an artist, but also how to last as an artist, something for which there are hardly any models in rock music," Berman tells Billboard.com of his prior road absence. "I kept aside and just hoped the records would do what they could. I made the work and then got out of the way because that seemed to be an obvious improvement on the expected work/life pattern of the songwriter of a touring band."

Berman has always been careful to keep separate his worlds of making music, poetry and art from day-to-day business responsibilities.

"My number one suspect for why all rock musicians begin to suck short of mid-life was the touring and promotional aspects," Berman says. "Business activities not only delay the making of further art, they create a completely poisonous positive feedback environment for the budding artist. They miss the years of bitter training in solitude a hardened writer puts himself under to get better and further along."